54. Ranfang (6)
54. Ranfang (6)
[ Choi Hye-yong : Come to Sparring Ground 3rd floor, Room 6 by 3:30. First time I've called you in about three days, right? ]
'Ugh, I don't want to.......'
Another summons from that man.
She'd been relieved he hadn't called for her lately, but sure enough, he hadn't stopped tormenting her.
Lanfang knew she couldn't refuse him, no matter how much she hated it.
She checked the time. Only thirty minutes left.
The Sparring Ground was far enough that she'd have to take the shuttle bus.
And he just ordered her to show up within thirty minutes, no questions asked.
Did he ever consider her circumstances at all?
'Wicked man. Petty, mean, horrible man.'
Even as she cursed Hye-yong inwardly, another thought surfaced.
'But I...... deserve to be punished.'
Lanfang remembered.
— C-Can I really eat some of your rations too?
— We packed more than we planned, so we have plenty. Eat as much as you want.
That man had spoken kindly the first time they met.
His true nature might be terrible, but if she hadn't done what she did, their paths would never have tangled like this. She would only remember him as someone who was kind.
'I did something truly cowardly.......'
The Capsule Bag she had tried to steal was the fruit of everyone in that party's grueling efforts.
Seo Ha-yoon and the other party members had shown her—a lonely, destitute nobody—kindness unlike any she had ever received.
And how had she repaid them?
She had tried to steal every bit of their hard-earned reward.
Blinded by the fear of being isolated, she'd attempted to rob the very people who had shown her kindness.
That was why she was being tormented now.
It was obvious that man was taking revenge because he found her cowardly and despicable.
'Just as much as I hate him...... he must absolutely loathe me. That's why he calls me out and torments me and does awful things.'
You reap what you sow.
That was the biggest reason Lanfang had lost any will to resist.
Because she believed she deserved to be punished, she had made no plans whatsoever to escape her situation.
'Let's go. If I'm late, I'll get in trouble.......'
Of course, that was nothing more than her delusion.
Hye-yong had long since forgotten the rotten thing Lanfang had been about to do—and in truth, he actually liked her quite a lot.
Enough to visit her every night, kiss her, entwine their bodies, and sometimes even whisper that he loved her.
-
June 19th, 3:27 PM
Sparring Ground 3rd floor, Room 6
Since most of the students were combat-class Awakened, the facility where students could spar against each other was enormous.
It was practically a whole building in itself.
The facility encouraged frequent sparring, since it helped sharpen combat instincts.
Thus, there were large sparring grounds with spectator seating, as well as private rooms where two people could go at each other with no one watching.
Naturally, Hye-yong had summoned Lanfang to a private sparring room.
"You came, Lanfang."
"Y-Yes...... but why the Sparring Ground......."
Lanfang mumbled cautiously, watching Hye-yong for his reaction.
"Why else do you come to a sparring ground? To spar."
"Spar...... with me......?"
"Yeah. Figured I should at least give you a chance."
A chance, he said.
What was this man talking about?
"If you beat me in a sparring match, I'll let you go. I won't torment you ever again."
"......!"
"But if you lose, well... you might end up going through something pretty sad."
"S-Something sad?"
"That's a secret. Anyway, it's a good opportunity, isn't it? You hate me. Sparring lets you beat me up to your heart's content."
Lanfang swallowed quietly.
As foolish as she might be, she could still vaguely guess the truth.
There was no way that man had proposed sparring simply to let her go.
'He's...... going to toy with me. With my body.'
She even had a feeling she knew what "something sad" meant.
But still—wasn't this her last chance to at least put up a fight?
That thought crossed Lanfang's mind.
"......I don't have a choice anyway, do I."
"Why not? You do have a choice. Running away is an option, you know? Keep on just taking it without resisting, then."
Keep on just taking it without resisting.
Those words made her fist clench on its own.
'That's too cruel.'
Setting aside whether she'd be freed or not, she at least wanted to show him that she still had some will to resist.
And if she got lucky, she might even be able to win.
"You gonna do it or not?"
"......I'll do it."
"Then let's pick out weapons."
Next to the sparring room was a small armory.
Weapons commonly used by students hung there in pairs.
These were practice weapons for sparring.
They were coated with materials that repelled mana, so they couldn't be imbued with mana and couldn't inflict serious harm on a mana-flowing body.
That way, students could spar lightly without too much worry.
"What kind of weapon is that?"
It was the weapon Lanfang had picked up.
Was that called a tonfa?
It looked like a tonfa with a long blade attached.
Surprised, Hye-yong asked about it.
"It's called a Blade Tonfa....... A regular dagger doesn't have enough destructive power against heterogenous species...... so a lot of assassin-class Awakened use these."
Blade Tonfa.
They'd named it exactly what it looked like.
Finding it oddly intriguing, Hye-yong picked up the same weapon for himself.
"That weapon...... are you picking it up because you intend to use it?"
"Why. Can't I?"
"......I guess you use it often, then."
"Nope. First time seeing it today. Didn't you hear me ask what it was?"
Lanfang's eyes briefly clouded with confusion, then narrowed slightly.
'Lanfang. Did you think I was just disregarding you way too much?'
Hye-yong hadn't chosen the same weapon just for the hell of it.
No matter what you do, I'll still beat you.
There's nothing you can do to defeat me.
That was what he intended to demonstrate.
[ Body Enhancement ]
Strength stat +13 levels
Agility stat +13 levels
Stamina stat +5 levels
Protection stat +4 levels
Self-cast only
[ Blade Tonfa Mastery ]
Blade Tonfa proficiency +11 levels
Self-cast only
'Looking at it like this, I've definitely grown a lot. Guess I've accumulated some Power of Perception after all.'
The buffs he had just created were Hye-yong's full-cost build into which he had poured all his resources.
Once a stat increase went past 10 levels, the required cost spiked sharply—but he had managed to raise two stats to 13 and bring a blade-type weapon proficiency all the way to 11.
He didn't know what rank he could go toe-to-toe with at this point, but beating Lanfang—whose Strength stat was at most 6 and Agility at 8—would be absurdly easy.
He stood facing Lanfang in the middle of the sparring room.
"......I'm coming at you first."
Lanfang dropped her stance low and rushed forward.
True to her assassin class, her approach speed was remarkably fast.
Her movements were quick and fluid, agility-based.
As she closed in, her blade swung simultaneously—closing in toward Hye-yong's shoulder area.
'Whoa...... I can see exactly where and how she's going to strike.'
He could tell it was a reasonably sharp attack, but it wasn't going to land against Hye-yong with his buffs active.
Clang!
He raised his arm lightly and blocked the attack.
The impact that traveled through his wrist was naturally controlled.
The weapon he was holding for the very first time today sat smoothly in his grip as if he had handled it for years.
'If I parry her like this and then attack, she'll probably block in a hurry and pull back, right?'
Right after blocking, he put force into his arm and whipped it out—Lanfang's arm was flung aside along with the motion, leaving her upper body wide open.
He launched an attack toward that opening, and Lanfang flinched in alarm, quickly retracting her arm to defend before retreating backward.
'Good. At this level, there shouldn't be any surprises.'
He had pushed the buffs to their absolute maximum just to eliminate any chance of an upset.
Even Hye-yong, who was a complete disaster in a fight, became practically a well-trained combatant once he had stat buffs and a weapon proficiency buff active.
This time it was Hye-yong who lunged at Lanfang and swung his blade.
Clang, clang!
"Ngh......!"
A few more exchanges followed—light for Hye-yong, heavy for Lanfang.
She still hadn't let a clean hit land, but she could definitely feel it.
With every clash, she was losing ground bit by bit, and eventually she would end up letting an attack through.
No matter where she aimed, everything was blocked.
No matter how she blocked, there was no opening to counter.
She racked her brain for a way to land even a single hit, but nothing came to her.
And then, just as she was struggling, a leg swept in and hooked hers.
Crash!
"Augh......!"
She had been so focused on blocking the incoming weapon that she never even imagined he'd hook her leg. She collapsed instantly.
She had wanted to show him that even a worm squirms when stepped on, but instead, her will to fight crumbled entirely.
"Want to keep going?"
"I lost......."
She hadn't been able to put up any resistance at all against someone who didn't even know what the weapon he was using was called.
It wasn't that she lost for some specific reason—it was simply a matter of raw, fundamental strength.
'I...... really can't offer this man any resistance whatsoever. Mentally or physically.......'
Lanfang felt it with absolute certainty.
The reason this man had summoned her to the Sparring Ground was to make her realize exactly that.
He had deliberately hammered it into her skull: the fact that, no matter what injustice she suffered, she couldn't even resist.
'How vicious.......'
Tears began to well up faintly in her eyes from the sheer helplessness.
But she didn't let them fall, hastily wiping them away with her sleeve.
When she finished wiping her tears, she saw that Hye-yong was holding out his hand to her.
She didn't want to take it, but getting up on her own here might look like pointless defiance—so she took his hand and pulled herself up.
"Let's head back now."
Right after the sparring ended, Hye-yong brought Lanfang to his room.
There was something he had to confirm.
"Wh-Why...... are we at your room......."
"Why do you think? There's still something left to do, isn't there?"
"Eep......."
Hye-yong slowly backed Lanfang toward the wall.
The thing Lanfang had been dreading was about to become reality.
Did "something sad" really mean being toyed with and violated by this man?
'Just that.......'
That was what she thought, but even if she said no, this man wasn't going to listen to her anyway.
The only thing she could do was turn her head, shut her eyes, block out the situation, and pray that time would pass quickly.
Click!
Hye-yong unfastened the belt of Lanfang's uniform pants.
At the same time, he undid the buttons on her upper uniform—and then, without any preamble, he slipped his hands inside her shirt and bra, inside her underpants and panties, and began stimulating her most sensitive areas.
"Hyaah!?"
At the sudden stimulation, Lanfang's eyes flew open and she grabbed the arm that was touching her crotch.
She must have put real strength into it, because Hye-yong's hand stopped short with a jolt.
"Don't touch where I pee...... please. That place is weird...... I might have a disease......!"
"What kind of disease?"
"I don't know either...... S-Strange stuff comes out. And it feels weird."
"Then I'll take a look for you. I can tell by touching it."
Lanfang recoiled and shook her head frantically.
"Relax your arm. Before I tie up every one of your limbs."
Trembling and hesitating, she eventually lowered her arm.
'So she says it feels weird, huh?'
[ Caress Skill Proficiency ]
When target is female: Caress proficiency +5 levels
Self-cast only
[ Pleasure Amplification ]
When target is female: Sexual pleasure from caress amplified +8 levels
Self-cast only
Hye-yong, acting on a hunch, quickly crafted two buffs, activated them, and stimulated her upper and lower body simultaneously.
"Hkgg!"
The moment the buffs took effect, a violent reaction came at once.
Her lower body trembled and quivered.
Her face tightened, teeth gritted as she desperately held back her moans.
Down below, she grew wet in an instant.
'This is.......'
Up until a moment ago, he had only been touching around her chest—but this time he also began firmly stroking and pinching her nipples.
With his rough fingers relentlessly touching such a sensitive place, she finally couldn't hold back anymore and a moan burst out.
"Hyaaaa! If you do that, if you do that! Don't. Don't! Please stop......! Hng!"
In her awkward, half-staggering posture, she quivered so violently that she clearly would have collapsed long ago if she hadn't been leaning against the wall.
Overwhelmed by the pleasure, Lanfang grabbed Hye-yong's arms with both hands—the arms that were stimulating her crotch—but there was no real strength in her grip, unlike before.
Thanks to all the torment he'd put her through while she slept, Hye-yong now knew every single one of Lanfang's weak spots inside and out.
The more she showed she was feeling it, the more Hye-yong swept over the spots that produced stronger reactions, deliberately amplifying the stimulation.
'Right here, if I gently scratch her clitoris with my fingernail and stroke upward.......'
Twitch!
"Hgyah! No, not that, not thaaat! Ah, ah! It's coming, it's coming again. Haa......!"
Right when her body signaled a violent climax, Hye-yong immediately stopped all stimulation and pulled his hands away.
Lanfang slumped down heavily, head bowed, body trembling.
Then she lifted her head and looked up at Hye-yong—her mouth hanging open slightly, her eyes half-closed. She was clearly still dazed and hadn't come back to her senses.
"Why......."
Her words cut off right after "why."
She had been about to ask why he stopped, but then held herself back.
"You want me to keep going?"
"Hut......."
Still collapsed on the floor, Lanfang wrapped her arms around her own shoulders and seemed to be thinking about something.
Anyone could see the look of frustrated longing—of not being able to finish cleanly—on her face. But in the end, she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
Seeing that, he grinned to himself.
He hadn't been completely certain until now, but this confirmed it.
The erotic sensitivity development inside her inner world had been a complete success, and Lanfang's body now became extremely aroused very easily in reality as well.
"Then go. Today ends here."
Lanfang struggled to her feet and looked at Hye-yong with yearning eyes, her mouth opening and closing a few times.
But no words came out.
"Ah, g-goodbye......."
With her face completely flushed, she stumbled out unsteadily—looking almost like someone who was drunk.
At this point, it seemed safe to put his plan into action.
'Just wait. Tonight, I'm coming for you. Period.'
Just the thought of giving her a nightmarish night where she desperately wanted to come but couldn't—that alone was already making his mouth water.